


Trying to Slay Dragons with Lawsuits

by QueenThayet



Series: The West Wing: Queering the Narrative [2]
Category: The West Wing
Genre: As Sam deals with Josh's insurance stuff, Canon-insert, Domestic Fluff, Filling in the implications that Sam and Josh are boyfriends, M/M, Takes place during and after "And It's Surely To Their Credit", a little hurt/comfort, but makes reference to earlier hurt, mostly comfort, protective!Sam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2016-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-30 08:03:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8525233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenThayet/pseuds/QueenThayet
Summary: This is just a little bit of domestic fluff written during the season 2 episode "And It's Surely To Their Credit" filling in some of the bits they didn't show us about Sam and Josh being boyfriends. Because they are boyfriends. Let's be honest. No one deals with someone else's insurance company just because.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sevenimpossiblethings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenimpossiblethings/gifts).



> Much thanks as always to the wonderful people over at westwingtranscripts.com for making it so much easier to write stuff into episodes. Some of the dialogue is taken directly from the episode, which I got from here: http://www.westwingtranscripts.com/search.php?flag=getTranscript&id=27

“I’m sorry, how exactly was he supposed to get pre-clearance for a life-saving medical procedure after he’d been shot, along with the President of the United States!” Sam’s voice rose as he argued with the representative from the insurance company on the other end of the phone.

“I’m sorry sir, but the hospital was not in network and without pre-clearance we can only pay 20% of emergency room costs for out of network hospitals,” the man on the other end of the phone repeated. 

“That doesn’t make any sense, how could he possibly have chosen which hospital to go to, he was unconscious. He had been shot!” Sam’s voice cracked this time as he responded. _He had been shot_. It echoed through his head as he remembered how terrified he’d been. People had tried to talk about how he’d found people and accounted for them that night, but all he could think about was that Josh had been shot and he hadn’t been able to stop it, or protect him. And now he couldn’t even protect him from having to pay $50,000 for a life saving procedure that he had no control over. And even though he was trying to deal with the insurance companies for Josh, so Josh didn’t have to keep reliving his trauma, he still had to get Josh to approve his communicating with the insurance company on his behalf. Because they still couldn’t even get fucking married which would have at least removed _some_ of the Kafkaesque insanity they were experiencing. 

“Look, you’ve been saying the same thing for the past twenty minutes, we’re not getting anywhere either pass me to someone higher up who can fix this problem, or we’re going to start looking into legal proceedings,” Sam snapped.

“Sir, I’m sorry, there isn’t anyone available right now, I can have someone call you back--” 

“Fine.” Sam hung up the phone and cradled his head in his hands.

He had gotten back to work trying to figure it out when Toby stopped by to tell him to cut the Superfund paragraphs. He gave in without much of a fight, which apparently tipped Toby off that something was wrong. 

“What are you doing?” Toby asked. 

“Trying to help Josh with his insurance thing.” Sam relayed the gist of frustrating conversation he’d had with the insurance company representative earlier that day. 

“His lung was collapsed, and blood stopped flowing to his brain, and he was supposed to dial up the automated 24-hour customer care line?” Toby said derisively. 

“If it keeps up like this, he is going to have to sue these people,” Sam said, knowing it was probably inevitable. 

“I like a country where you can sue the insurance company but not the people who shot you.” 

Sam felt as if a lightbulb lit up above his head as soon as Toby said that. He followed Toby into his office. “He can sue the people who shot him.” 

“The people who shot him are dead,” Toby said, as if Sam had lost track of reality after engaging with the insurance company for too long. 

“No. Hardly any of them are.”

***

Sam understood why Josh decided not to sue West Virginia White Pride. He did. That wasn’t what upset him. It was the look on Josh’s face when he said: “--but mostly I just, I just think a lawsuit is... too small. I can't have it be like I... slipped in their driveway. It's different than that to me. I don't want to sue 'em.”

He had looked just so hurt, and lost, and Sam _hated_ that anyone could do that to his partner, to Josh, who was full of life and energy and fight. Josh who shouted and browbeat people and never pulled his punches. Those people had taken that away from him. Sam didn’t want to sue them either, not really, he wanted to slay dragons for Josh, and protect him from anyone who dared to hurt him like that. But he wasn’t a knight, he was a lawyer, and the law was all he had. 

“What about the insurance company?” he asked. 

“Oh, them I’ll sue, no problem,” Josh grinned at him. Sam felt a little better, at least he could do something. 

Initially he had offered to just pay the hospital bill. Sure he had taken a pay cut to work for the campaign and then the White House, but he’d had a very lucrative job before that. And he’d been saving for a wedding, which thank goodness had been called off. He had the money. He could easily pull it out of mutual funds and just pay it straight out. What price wouldn’t he pay to have Josh alive and standing in front of him? 

That offer had been firmly rebuffed, however.

“This is why I _have_ medical insurance, Sam. This is the whole point of it! So that if someone shoots you, and you go to an emergency room and they save your life, you’re not suddenly going to wish you were dead because of the bill you have to pay!” 

Sam could see his point. And if fighting with the insurance company over this injustice helped Josh feel a little better, well, then Sam would take up his sword. 

***

That night, when they got home, Sam started heating up leftovers for dinner. Josh looked over at him. 

“That was a nice thing you did.” 

“Hmm?” Sam asked. “It’s just the Chinese takeout from two nights ago. It’s not hard.” 

“No, not dinner, although thanks,” Josh said as he accepted his plate of reheated beef and broccoli. “The thing you did for Ainsley. I didn’t think you liked her.” 

“No one deserves to be treated how she was. And you should have seen her face. She wasn’t even shocked. We’re supposed to be better. We’re supposed to respect women, not harass them for doing their jobs. She wasn’t even shocked.” Sam shook his head. 

Josh gave him a half smile as he finished chewing a bite of his food. “That’s what I love about you. You’re so full of ideals, you want to right wrongs and correct injustices.” 

Sam smiled and leaned across the table to press a kiss against the side of Josh’s mouth. “And here I thought that’s what I loved about you.” 

“Nah, I just yell about stuff. You actually get stuff done. That’s why I needed you on the campaign.” Josh grinned and took another bite of his food. 

“I see you eating around the broccoli. It defeats the purpose of getting beef and broccoli if you don’t eat the broccoli. You need to eat vegetables occasionally, you’re not in college anymore,” Sam said. 

“I had a salad for lunch yesterday,” Josh protested, even as he took a bite of broccoli. 

“No, Donna had a salad for lunch yesterday,” Sam said, rolling his eyes. “You can’t actually fool me, you know.” 

“I guess I’ll just have to let you take care of me, then,” Josh said with fake resignation. 

“Oh, I’ll take care of you all right,” Sam said.

“Is that right?” Josh raised a challenging eyebrow. 

“Always,” Sam said more seriously, all joking aside. “Always and forever.”

 


End file.
